The Thnking Banker's Thinking Banker

Sep 1, 2001

Sir John Bond, chairman of HSBC Holdings, says the international financial community should create an environment in which markets can function more effectively.

Sir John Bond is known to be a skinflint. The chairman of
HSBC Holdings, the London-based international financial group,
travels to work on the city's grimy and overcrowded subway
system. Thrift is part of the bank's culture. It only pays for
executives to fly economy class. Bond is also stingy with
executive pay. Last year he was the bank's highest-paid
director, with a package worth £1.6 million ($2.6
million). This is positively frugal for a man who runs the
world's second-largest bank. In comparison, Citigroup Chairman
Sandy Weill earned $19.9 million last year. Bond is clearly no
get-rich-quick banker. He scorns speculators - whom he once
referred to as "people in colorful suspenders." Yet he is not
an old school financier either and has moved the bank into new,
more adventurous areas. Bond is a tough, feared leader but he
also has an unpretentious and cerebral personal style.
He...